On the lookout for thief in the pews

At least 3 Schenectady County churches hit by thefts during services

Published 8:24 pm, Friday, April 5, 2013

Father Robert Hohenstein in the main santuary of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church April 5, 2013, in Schenectady, N.Y., the scene of a robbery that occurred during the Palm Sunday observance. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union)

Father Robert Hohenstein in the main santuary of Our Lady of Mount...

Father Robert Hohenstein stands outside Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church April 5, 2013, in Schenectady, N.Y., the scene of a robbery that occurred during the Palm Sunday observance. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union)

Father Robert Hohenstein stands outside Our Lady of Mount Carmel...

The main santuary of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church April 5, 2013, in Schenectady, N.Y., the scene of a robbery that occurred during the Palm Sunday observance. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union)

The main santuary of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church April 5, 2013,...

In hindsight, the stranger sporting the knit cap in church sitting among the regulars at Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Schenectady should have been a red flag, the Rev. Robert Hohenstein recalled.

But then again, it was Good Friday when the Catholic church like many others in the region, attracts people who may only show up for worship during Holy Week.

When a woman in her 60s seated near the man joined the line of faithful in the middle of the church waiting to kiss the cross, he snatched her pocketbook and hustled out of the Mont Pleasant church.

Strangely, it was at that point that the bandit is captured on church surveillance video removing his cap while walking in front of the Parish Center and making a beeline for 9th Avenue.

The priest said during a recent interview in the church rectory that he didn't know at first what to make of all the fuss after the woman discovered her purse was missing.

"All the commotion, I thought somebody took sick and they were waiting for paramedics," said Hohenstein. "When you come to church for Good Friday, you are looking for peace and consolation, and somebody comes with an different agenda, namely to steal."

Making matters worse, the woman had lost her husband a few months ago, Hohenstein said.

The church on Pleasant Street was among at least three in Schenectady County — all Catholic parishes — where a worshipper was the victim of a robbery in the week from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday, according to Rotterdam and Schenectady police.

The police departments have launched a joint probe into whether the same person is responsible for the thefts of personal property of other elderly women at St. John the Evangelist Church on Union Street in the Schenectady and Our Lady Queen of Peace in Rotterdam.

Rotterdam Detective Lt. Michael Brown said the thief was sitting in the same pew as the victim at Our Lady Queen of Peace on Easter Sunday. After the woman rose to her feet about 9:30 a.m. to approach the altar for communion, the man grabbed her purse containing cash, credit cards and identification, and fled.

"This was somebody that nobody recognized as being a regular parishioner," said Brown.

The crook is described as a 5-foot-8 to 5-foot-10-inch tall white man about 65 years old with greasy dark hair streaked with gray, said Brown. He cautioned that people need to secure their belongings everywhere they go because no place is immune from crime.

"It's nothing that we've seen before, but people have to be protective of their personal property wherever they are," Brown said.

Schenectady Lt. Mark McCracken said people need to safeguard their belongings even when they're in church because "places of worship are an opportunity to engage in illegal activity."

Hohenstein said the only thing he can recall that comes close to what happened on Good Friday is a series of smash-and-grab robberies of vehicles in the church's parking lot a few years ago.

As to this year's criminal act, "It's sad because it happened during Holy Week, the most sacred week of the year, especially on Good Friday when we commemorate the death of Jesus Christ," Hohenstein said.